Welcome to Season 3 of the Body Wisdom Podcast with Dr. Michele.
This season the podcast will be focusing on healthy habits. As your host, I’ll be recording solo episodes which will answer some of the most common questions I’m asked as a physician such as “how do I build a new habit?” “which habits are essential to get healthy again?” “what can I do to lose weight?” “how can I look and feel younger again?” “how can I start exercising again if I haven’t done it in years?” and more. I will also be coaching patients and clients live on-air, and conducting interviews with other health & wellness experts. Of course, I am always open to new topic ideas, so if there is a topic you would like me to address or if there is a question you would like answered, please reach out. Email me directly at dr.michele.colon@gmail.com.
Today Dr. Michele discusses “Why Earlier Lighter Dinners Work.”
I hope you enjoy the show!
About Dr. Michele:
As a physician & surgeon, certified Ayurvedic and Autoimmune health coach, yoga/anatomy teacher, and overall health & wellness expert, Dr. Michele Summers Colon is an Advocate for Women’s Health. Her passion is helping women help themselves to heal their body. She is the author of Body Wisdom: 10 Weeks to Transformation, the creator and host of the Body Wisdom with Dr. Michele Podcast, and the leader of the Body Wisdom Membership Program.
She has been interviewed and quoted in many prominent publications including USA Today, US News & World Reports, Health Magazine, Yahoo! Makers, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. One of Dr. Michele’s greatest strengths is her ability to help women create balanced, healthy lives by looking at the whole picture. She combines the best of Eastern and Western medicine to create individualized health & wellness plans for her patients and clients. For over 24 years, Dr. Michele has dedicated herself to maintaining a private medical practice and providing exceptional care to her patients while at the same time studying holisitic and integrative medicine. Dr. Michele believes that food is medicine and that yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation are the keys to perfect health.
Dr. Michele has a Bachelor’s degree in Physiology from UCBerkeley, a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and a Doctorate degree in Podiatry from Barry University, and graduated from a Foot & Ankle Surgical Residency in Los Angeles. Dr. Michele is also certified in Ayurvedic as well as Autoimmune Health Coaching, Yoga, Reiki, Reflexology, and Laser Therapy. Dr. Michele specializes in Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, and Therapeutic Yoga to provide the most healing, relaxation, and rejuvenation to her patients and clients. Dr. Michele has studied Ayurvedic Medicine extensively and has worked with some of the best practitioners throughout the United States to bring Ayurveda to the forefront of medicine.
Combining yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation is one of Dr. Michele’s passions so that she can spread the word to as many people as possible that this is the path to perfect health.
Show Notes:
This season we are going to be talking about Healthy Habits so that we can feel younger and healthier.
Habit change = habit evolution.
Why is it important for us to eat an earlier lighter dinner? Because eating and sleeping goes hand in hand. It sets you up for having a good energetic day the following day.
Eating late at night is a bad idea because it makes you feel heavy and sluggish the following day. Also, the energy that was supposed to be used for rejuvenation and replenishing your energy stores is now going to digesting your food while you sleep.
The key is to eat four hours before you go to sleep. If you aim for eating dinner around 6pm and going to bed around 10pm, you will start to feel better in the morning which leads to having more energy the next day and so on.
Also, make sure the foods you eat are light, like salads and soups, so that you can digest everything before you go to sleep.
Just having the recipes doesn’t help to have an earlier lighter dinner. Aim to be in the kitchen at 5pm. Focus on soups, salads, and roasted vegetables. Prepping in the morning for more complex meals saves a lot of time at dinner time. Batch task when you’re in the kitchen. You can also do kitchen sadhana, where you spend a lot of time in the kitchen but you do it every week or two. Sodhana is like the essential, the fundamental things that need to get done, and that becomes your spiritual practice. Body, mind, and spirit are all dependent on how we nourish ourselves, so we need to take these spiritual practices to the kitchen.
This is also a good time to do menu planning for the week. Make your salad dressings and sauces, and prep your veggies. Start with what you want to eat when meal planning and prepping. Foods lose their prana, or life force energy, as time goes by. Don’t eat left overs after one day. The exception to this in Ayurveda is fermented foods.
Eat in cycles. Do not spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Eat what you made for a day or a day and a half, then move on to the next thing. Most of us are fine with it, but a lot of our spouses are not OK with it. This is when we begin to stir the pot in our relationships as our habits change. We navigate it with conscious conversations. As I add new habits, they all build on each other. They all reflect on each other, but I always go back to earlier lighter dinners.
Another key point here is to eat your biggest meal at lunch time, around noon. This disspells the myth that breakfast is your most important meal. Nope! Lunch is your most important meal of the day! So plan on eating your heaviest, most carb filled meal at lunch time, not dinner time.
Some other good tips are not to eat any snacks or desserts after dinner. Avoid wine and chocolate with dinner or after dinner because they have a lot of sugar, and chocolate has a stimulant that revs us back up. Having a “kitchen is closed” policy in your home after dinner time will serve you and your family in the long run tremendously.
In summary, eat four hours before bedtime, eat lighter foods for dinner, and make lunch your biggest meal of the day.
For more tips on Earlier Lighter Dinners AND recipes, click here for some free downloads.
Namaste,
Dr. Michele
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If there is a topic you would like me to address or if there is a question you would like answered, please reach out. Email me directly at dr.michele.colon@gmail.com or schedule a coaching call with me so we can dive deeper to find out what is going on and come up with a plan of action for you: drmichele.com/schedule
Today’s show was brought to you by the Body Wisdom Membership Program. For more information, head on over to my website drmichele.com and click on the JOIN NOW or WORK WITH ME tab. All of the information is there about my group programs as well as 1:1 coaching.
If you have questions about your health that you would like me to answer on air, you can email them to me or go to my website drmichele.com/get in touch to contact my team.
If you have questions you’d like to discuss with me directly, sign up for a coaching call at drmichele.com/schedule.
Contact Information and Important Links for Dr. Michele:
Dr. Michele can be found online or by email. Dr. Michele is currently accepting new 1:1 coaching clients as well as new members into her Body Wisdom Membership Program.
If you have questions about the Body Wisdom Membership Program or about how you can make lifestyles changes to improve your health, check out the Dr. Michele website or sign up for a coaching call with Dr. Michele here: drmichele.com/schedule
Namaste,
Dr. Michele
Here’s Where You Find Dr. Michele:
website – drmichele.com
email – dr.michele.colon@gmail.com
twitter – @doctormichele
facebook – @doctormichele
instagram – @drmichele
“The lessons learned through Dr. Michele’s online training class were invaluable, teaching me a new way at looking at food and timing of my meals. Her direction set me on a path to better health.”
